Topic : Work
Americans’ Attitudes Toward Work
- 65% of Americans would keep working even if they had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
- 63% of Americans agree that their standard of living is at least somewhat better than their parents’ was at the same age.
- 45% of Americans believe their children’s future standard of living will be at least somewhat better than theirs is today. Twenty percent believe it will be the same, and 21% fear it will be worse.
- 69% of Americans believe that hard work rather than luck is the key to getting ahead.
Work for the Pleasure of It
When the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it. 'this,? said Schwab, as he took the contract and tore it up. That contract had paid Schwab $1,300,000 the year before. "I didn't care what salary they paid me,? Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer.
"I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I cancelled that contract without a moment's hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.?
